May 29, 2013

Gabe Swarr’s Life In The Analog Age, will now be a weekly web series! Swarr is currently the Supervising Director on Nickelodeon’s Kung Fu Panda - Legends of Awesomeness TV series. I'll be posting his shorts here on a daily basis until I catch up to his new episodes. Any boy who's had a childhood will be able to relate to these stories, they are short and sweet, and for someone like me who grew up in the 80s, the nostalgia hits home. Here's my review for one of his fantastic books that he made as well. He's a great inspiration to all animators longing to do their own works.

May 25, 2013

May 24, 2013

Jack Kirby (August 28, 1917 - February 6, 1994).
Born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium.

Growing up poor in New York City, Kurtzberg entered the nascent comics industry in the 1930s. He drew various comics features under different pen names, including Jack Curtiss, but ultimately settling on Jack Kirby. In 1940, he and writer-editor Joe Simon created the highly successful superhero character Captain America for Timely Comics, predecessor of Marvel Comics. During the 1940s, Kirby, generally teamed with Simon, created numerous characters for that company and for the company that would become DC Comics.

After serving in World War II, Kirby returned to comics and worked in a variety of genres. He contributed to a number of publishers, including DC, Harvey Comics, Hillman Periodicals and Crestwood Publications, where he and Simon created the genre of romance comics. He and Simon also launched their own short-lived comic company, Mainline Publications. Kirby ultimately found himself at Timely's 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics, later to be known as Marvel Comics. There, in the 1960s, he and writer-editor Stan Lee co-created many of Marvel's major characters, including the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Hulk. Despite the high sales and critical acclaim of the Lee-Kirby titles, however, Kirby felt treated unfairly, and left the company in 1970 for rival DC.

There Kirby created his Fourth World saga, which spanned several comics titles. While these series proved commercially unsuccessful and were canceled, several of their characters and the Fourth World mythos have continued as a significant part of the DC Universe. Kirby returned to Marvel briefly in the mid-to-late 1970s, then ventured into television animation and independent comics. In his later years, Kirby, who has been called "the William Blake of comics",[3] began receiving great recognition in the mainstream press for his career accomplishments, and in 1987, he, along with Carl Barks and Will Eisner, was one of the three inaugural inductees of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame. The Jack Kirby Awards and Jack Kirby Hall of Fame were named in his honor.

Here's an interesting look at how the media would portray comics back in 1982:

May 22, 2013

Rebecca Sugar was asked by Cartoon Network to create a pilot for a proposed cartoon series. The result: Steven Universe. Here's the finished pilot. Rebecca and her crew are hard at work on the series, and what you see here are early versions of character designs and animation. Rebecca's brother Steven is also working on the show doing backgrounds.

Gustav's specialty is Animatronic Puppetry and Prosthetic Makeup Effects for TV and Film. His credits and some shots shown in this video include: Prometheus, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Clash of the Titans, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Doctor Who and more: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1539473/

Animatronics is mainly used in movie making, but also in theme parks and other forms of entertainment. Its main advantage over CGI and stop motion is that the simulated creature has a physical presence moving in front of the camera in real time. The technology behind animatronics has become more advanced and sophisticated over the years, making the puppets even more realistic and lifelike.

Of course Jim Henson and Stan Winston were pioneers in this field of special effects with films like Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, Terminator, Aliens, and The Thing. People like Gustav was inspired by these great works and bring these techniques and skill sets to brand new heights.

Rare and beautiful shots of alien-looking moon jellyfish have been captured by an Israeli photographer in the Red Sea.

Photographer Yuzuru Masuda, 37, captured these stunning images of the moon jellyfish as he snorkelled during an excursion off the coast of Saudi Arabia.
Masuda watched and swam with the jellyfish for two hours and because they don't sting he could let them swim right up to him and even brush against his arm.

Photographer Yuzuru Masuda captures a stunning image taken while snorkelling underneath a moon jellyfish while in the Red Sea. The fascinating creatures look like UFOs. This image shows a fish swimming beneath it.

Moon jellyfish don't sting meaning photographer Yuzuru Masuda could swim right up to the creatures in order to capture shots such as this one, while snorkelling in the Red Sea

The moon jellyfish is translucent and grows to about 40 cm in diameter. It can be identified by its four horseshoe-shaped gonads (pictured), seen through the top of the bell. This image was captured by photographer Yuzuru Masuda in the Red Sea

May 15, 2013

This short-film from Ilya Naishuller starts out pretty cool then goes flat-out bonkers. I can't really think of a better way to describe it other than Mirror's Edge meets Reservoir Dogs, but basically—if you're into first-person-running-and-combat stuff, this is right up your alley.

Grammy-winning musician and producer Jack White joins Conan for a special episode of Serious Jibber-Jabber -- shot entirely on 35mm film. Jack talks about the often complex creative process we all must go through in order to achieve good things, and the fact that you mus never be afraid of hard work.

May 09, 2013

The short film will depict a herd of Styracosaurs as they are hunted by a pack of Dromaeosaurs. "Dino Hunt" is a visual effects short film, in which we combine animated realistic-looking dinosaurs with live-action environment footage.

The team, which consists of dinosaur enthusiasts and visual effects lovers, has been hard at work creating a Cretaceous dinosaur story that is both compelling and exciting. The Pre-Production phase is nearly complete, and they are gearing up for the live-action filming of the environments. They've recently launched an IndieGoGo campaign to help them progress forward with filming.

They're looking for other dinosaur and visual effects fans to consider contributing to their Dino Hunt IndieGoGo campaign, and help them spread the word! You can follow along with their progress via Twitter and Instagram!

Who would have thought traveling to outer space could be such a profound experience? OK, probably everybody, but these former astronauts really articulate it in a way that was just a little mind-blowing.